Sunday, November 22, 2015

It was 9 pm and I was sitting in the office of an engineer/contractor
in a small city in Egypt. The office was on the fourth floor of a building he
had designed and built some years ago. For me, it had been a busy day of travel, teaching,
and meeting pastors and business persons.For Aheb, it had been another long but normal day of work, overseeing
his three businesses.Aheb had just
shared his story of the challenges of doing business as a Christian minority in
Egypt, challenges that include things that Westerners could hardly
imagine.I asked him with whom he shared
these challenges – who encourages him, who mentored him, where he gets his
support?His answer, sadly, was the same
that I heard from each business person with whom we met.“No-one. There is no-one I can trust to
discuss my business, not even my family. The church does not care.There has been no one
to mentor me.”After a moment of
silence, I said, “It must be both a lonely and frustrating path for you to
walk.”He quickly responded, “I am not
lonely or frustrated.I love what I
do.God has made me in a way that I am
able to keep moving forward.”

The beautiful river Nile and streets of Minya

After more discussion, I wrapped up with a final
question.“Aheb, if a younger version of
you walked through the door, ready to start his work as an engineer in the
construction field, knowing what you know now, what advice would you give
him?”Aheb thought for a moment and then
quietly said, “I would tell him, 'Don't be afraid.'”He paused, then added, “The future is a
mystery.Fear is an obstacle.” As soon
as those words left his mouth, I saw tears well up in his eyes and he struggled
to maintain his composure.

I quickly felt very aware that a nerve had been touched. I was
also unsure of the Egyptian culture, as it relates to the appropriateness for
an Egyptian man to show this type of emotion in public.I decided to not push the question
further.This was a man who had shown,
through his story, that he was not afraid to take risks.He was running several businesses, doing a
ministry of church leadership development in Chad, raising three beautiful
daughters, survived two revolutions in Egypt, survived his office being burned,
faced oppression and persecution as part of being a Christian business person
in a religious minority, and had, moments before, boasted of his love for Egypt.
While many Christians are fleeing the country, he has never even been tempted
to leave.So what did those tears mean?

I’m not sure.But if
I were to guess, he caught a glimpse of his younger self coming through the
door. He flashed back on the many moments of struggle and pain over his 18
years of business experience. The same pain that he chooses to fight through
each and every day, and for a brief moment allowed himself to feel the weight
of the struggle.

Farms outside of El Minya

The next day we visited another business person who gave us
the same answer of having no one to support encourage, mentor or trust as it
relates to his business.He then shared
that we are the first to EVER ask him about the role that the church plays in
his business.He said this sadly, yet
with some frustration.He said, “The
church doesn’t care at all what I do during the week, as long as I come with my
family on Sunday and give when they need funds.”Then he leaned forward and asked, “What do
the pastors say when you ask them the same question?”He knew that we were teaching pastors and
church leaders about Church-based business as mission.We squirmed in our seats as we had just spent
four hours the day before with pastors who insisted that all is well with their
relationship with business people. The pastors believe that they are affirming
and supporting their business people.

Dr. Walker teaching the pastors.

This same businessman then shared that he has taken
fifty-five (!!) loans in his eight years
of business, with five loans going concurrently as we talked.I didn’t want to tell him that he probably
wins the first prize out of the thousands of businesses that I have interviewed
for the highest number of loans.My fear
for this man is that he is in a vicious circle of robbing Peter to pay Paul. But
he never really faces the music as his book-keeping system is simple, at best,
and not giving him the feedback he needs to make good financial decisions.He said that he is working fourteen hour days
and never sees his family – he has a three year old son and a forty day old son.He is unsure when this will ever change.

We returned to the training with the pastors that afternoon,
and shared with them some of what we had heard.Dr. Walker encouraged the pastors to think of what would happen if they
never visited or inquired about the lives of their grown children – in many
ways, those children would feel like orphans.He then said, “I am here to tell you that you have many orphans in your
church.They need you to care about what
they do.They want you and the church to
affirm, encourage, and disciple them in how to be the Church from
Monday-Friday.”It was a somber moment.

At the end of this training, all eight churches from this
town decided to forsake denominationalism and work together to bring Discipling
Marketplace Ministers to their town, and reclaim the redeemed Marketplace.

We know that this is just a first step.But we are thankful for that first step, as
difficult as it was to get there.We
will start this training at the end of February. Each pastor
will preach a sermon series on business as mission, meet and pray for and with
the business members in their church, and choose 5-10 of their members to join
the training.Please pray with us for
this group of eight churches. Pray also for these business people who seem so
eager to share, so thirsty for support, so hungry for companionship.

Bob Reed

What does it mean to be a "Reed in the Wind?"

From Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey:

The Virtue of Flexibility

Trees look strong compared with the wild reeds in the field. But when the storm comes the trees are uprooted, whereas the wild reeds, while moved back and forth by the wind, remain rooted and are standing up again when the storm has calmed down.

Flexibility is a great virtue. When we cling to our own positions and are not willing to let our hearts be moved back and forth a little by the ideas or actions of others, we may easily be broken. Being like wild reeds does not mean being wishy-washy. It means moving a little with the winds of the time while remaining solidly anchored in the ground. A humorless, intense, opinionated rigidity about current issues might cause these issues to break our spirits and make us bitter people. Let's be flexible while being deeply rooted.

Paying Attention to the Wind

"The wind blows where it wills." That was Jesus, who compared the spirit of God to the wind. The Reeds have followed the Wind from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Monrovia, Liberia, to Accra, Ghana, then to Kitale, Kenya. Now the work of Discipling Marketplace Leaders is spreading through West, East, and Northern Africa, as well as to Central America. Join Renita as she still seeks to understand what it means to be "shaken by the Wind."